Oral History Interview with Shri Y. B. Chavan
New Delhi, July 1, 1978

Dr. Hari Dev Sharma
For The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

Dr Hari Dev Sharma : What were the formative influences on you?

Shri Y. B. Chavan : Well, I can tell you about the formative influences on me. Like millions of children of poor peasants, I was born in  a small village of two thousand population. But I Spent most of the childhood time not in my own town, but in nanihal as you may call it. And that house was the house of a small peasant who had about five acress of land.  As my father died very early, my education was interrupted there for a couple of years. I went to primary school rather late in my life. But I used to go to the farms to look after the cattle, spent my time there, mixed with people of different communities, particularly the boys of  the Muslim community. There was a backward class community, called Ramoshis in my neigbhourhood. As a matter of fact, infuences of all the communities was on me. I was never brought up in one kind of exclusive atmosphere. Near my household there were families of weaver class also.

My maternal uncle, my aunt and my cousins were brought up in that atmosphere. I was in that village up to the age of seven. I know what poverty is. I remember, only for the sake of formality, they used to light the lamp in the evening, but we used to go to bed early to save kerosene. We were told that we must make the maximum use of sunlight to read or play or do whatever we liked, we used to sit in the moonlight, talk about things, read and tell stories. It was  a typical life of millions of peasant boys and where in the country. This is what I would say about my early days.

Later on, my mother with my elder brothers started living in Karad, which became my hometown when I shifted from that small village, Devarashtra, to this place. I spent the rest of my early life here and completed my matriculation. this place was rather a very active place, politically. There was a hight school, a few primary schools, two civil courts, quite a good bar and a few doctors. so there was an atmosphere of edcuation and polttics. I came to know all about the national movement and its developments in the country in that samll town.